- 25 37. At Kypseli Police Station, the conditions of detention were of a similarly poor state in the four cells in the basement of the building. One cell, measuring some 18 m² and accommodating six persons, was in a state of permanent gloom as it had almost no access to natural light and possessed no artificial lighting. Further, the cell was poorly ventilated, dirty and dilapidated. In the other cells, detainees were also only provided with some 3 m² of living space; however, these cells did have some access to natural light and the artificial lighting in the corridor provided the cells with some illumination, although insufficient for the purposes of being able to read without straining the eyes. Detainees were not provided with mattresses for the concrete plinths and instead had to make do with blankets, many of which were worn and dirty. The sanitary facilities were in need of upgrading as, despite being cleaned on the day of the visit, they remained unhygienic. Rats had apparently been sighted on several occasions. Further, there was no outdoor exercise yard. Several detainees had spent more than six months in this detention facility. Reference should also be made to the 12 m² holding room on the first floor, which at the time of the visit was being used by the Kypseli Security Department to hold eight persons for periods of several days; one person had apparently spent up to a month in this cell. They had to sleep sitting on a chair or on a table or cardboard sheets placed on the floor. On the third floor there was an unfurnished room (7 m²) used by the Sub-Directorate of the Security Police of Athens for holding one or more criminal suspects for a few days; detainees slept on the floor. Access to the toilet was problematic for persons held in both of these rooms, with detainees having, at times, to urinate in a bottle. 38. At the time of the visit, the five cells on the first floor of Omonia Police Station were accommodating 30 persons, some of whom had been held for longer than six months, for an official capacity of 27 men and five women. The conditions in these cells had not improved since the previous visit in 2011.15 Further, the second floor holding cell (a room of some 20 m² containing only a narrow bench running the length of three walls) was still being used to accommodate detainees for several weeks. The delegation also found a recently constructed 25 m² cell on the third floor of the station, which was used by the Omonia Security Department. The cell was holding 21 men16 and two women overnight, and many persons met by the delegation claimed that, in the past, numbers had been much higher. The cell was dirty and malodorous with no ventilation; persons were being kept in the cell for several days and were only provided with blankets. The Committee must repeat that conditions of detention of the kind described above are totally unacceptable; and to oblige women and men to share such a cell is outrageous. The conditions of detention at Alexander Street Police Headquarters also remained as poor as those described in the report on the 2011 visit.17 At the time of the 2013 visit, 69 remand prisoners and irregular migrants were detained together, with up to seven men sharing a cell of 12 m². On a positive note, women detainees in this establishment were kept in a separate cell. The mattresses and blankets were dirty and worn, and not all detainees possessed a mattress. The sanitary facilities were flooded, in a state of disrepair, and malodorous; hygiene was poor. Recognising the problems with the detention area, funding had been secured and renovation works were scheduled to begin in mid-April 2013. The CPT would like to receive information on the completed refurbishment. 15 16 17 See the report on the CPT’s 2011 visit: CPT/Inf (2012) 1, paragraph 34. At the time of the delegation’s first visit to this police station, nine male detainees had been removed from the cell and temporarily kept on the 7th floor. Op.cit. footnote 15.